WOMAN GETS 6 YEARS FOR FATAL DUI CRASH

Woman’s blood-alcohol content measured at nearly three times legal limit after wreck on state Route 52

El Cajon 
A woman who drove the wrong way on a Santee freeway in December, causing a head-on crash that killed a 25-year-old San Diego man, was sentenced Tuesday to a six-year prison term.

April Carole Thompson, 23, pleaded guilty in June to gross vehicular manslaughter in connection with the death of Jayme Alan Midlam. She also admitted allegations that she caused great bodily injury and used a deadly weapon — the pickup she was driving.

Thompson’s blood-alcohol content measured 0.21 percent when it was drawn, but authorities said it was probably as high as 0.24 — three times the legal limit for drivers in California — at the time of the crash.

El Cajon Superior Court Judge Daniel Goldstein noted that the mere fact that Thompson could function at all with that much alcohol in her system shows that she has a problem.

“If she’s at a 0.24 and she’s able to even get a key in an ignition and drive a car, her tolerance level is extraordinary,” Goldstein said.

The judge weighed several factors, including Thompson’s difficult past and lack of criminal history, before sentencing Thompson to the middle term available. But he noted that it was also important that her sentence serve as a deterrent to herself and other would-be drunken drivers.

“You’re putting yourself into a two-ton bullet,” Goldstein said.

Deputy District Attorney Michael Runyon had argued for the maximum prison term of 10 years, noting that Thompson had several opportunities to pull over to a median on state Route 52 as soon as it was clear that she was driving the wrong way.

He said a witness saw Thompson swerve several times to avoid hitting oncoming cars. However, Midlam’s car was penned in by guard railing, making him unable to avoid the collision.

“Mr. Midlam literally is trapped,” Runyon said, describing the Dec. 29, 2012, crash. “He has no place to go.”

Midlam was driving a 1972 Volkswagen Beetle when he was hit head on.

His mother, Karen Lennon, asked the judge to sentence Thompson to the maximum term available under the law.

“I’m depleted, grieving,” she said. “I miss my loving son with every fiber of my being.”

Kevin Haughton, the deputy public defender who represented Thompson, argued that his client had suffered “horrific” abuse when she lived in her biological mother’s home. She was removed from the home at age 7 and separated from her five siblings, whom she had tried to protect.

She was later adopted.

Haughton said her background doesn’t excuse her heavy drinking, but it does help to explain it. He said Thompson’s problems with alcohol were a “natural result” of what she endured as a child.

Through her tears, Thompson apologized to the victim’s family and friends, and said she hoped that they would forgive her one day.

“My heart cries out in pain knowing that I have taken a loved one from you,” she said.